The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1887-10-28
Newspaper Ene,i,h.

compared with that OF thirty years
ago; yet the indulgence in slipshod
English has grown upon many of the
writer's who are obliged to turn out 80
many columns daily. The influence of
the press as an educator is simply i'm.
mense. There is not a household into
which the daily, weekly or monthly
visitor ONE where the student does
not. consciously or unconsciously,
strive to attain the style of the oracle
he admires. If this be a writer re-
markable for the purity and power of
his dlction. good; but such are nearly
as rare as were good men in Gomorrah.
Not that the American press does not
embrace the brightest or most brilliant
in~tellects, but many of them ase SO
given to the habit of writing to meet
the exigeDcies of the occasion, that
they have fallen into the use of Care
%lessness, and oftentimes slipshod, Eng
iish. To be sure there are journals
which guard their pages zealously
against inaccuracies, but a few cannot
redeem the many.
If any one Can reasonably be ex-
pccted to write pure. strong English it
is the editor who undertakes to cater
to the intellect of thousands, no maj.
ter how cultured or how unframed
that intellect may be; and yet it is a
lamertable truth that u large proper
ton of the editorial fraternity INDUCES
in nippant, slangy phrases, loosely
joined constructions, careless meta
phors and d%iscourtesy toward one an
other. Nothing is needed SO much as
IL lcform in this direction. 1t is u most
favorable sign to find that many of the
foremost Journals have already recog-
nized the force of simple and direct
language. There are no better ex-
amples of varied and equally admir-
able styles than The New York Sun.
Roscoe C,nkling. Robert q. Ingersoll
and Gin England) William Ewart Glad
stone atford; yet, of them all, none can
compass SO much within a sentence as
the first. Why? Because the Journal
ist has learned the great secret of con
dcNsing. He makes every word fulfill
its duty as the sign of an idea.
Il rJa., ~ ,,l.i:,.. T, ..1 ft,-1
stone rome before the public only nj
intervals, however fir. qucnt, serving as
Illustrations of the statement that
orators, however potent, cannot COM
murd uch constant audience as the
editor. The influence of paper up
on others can well be illustrated by the
New York Sun. When 1T rose above
he horizon, it WAS of insieniticani
dimensions. 1t was the foe of
v%erbiage. IL exercised censorship over
every line. To-day. in point of con-
%ciseness. it is the nearest approach to q
perfect newspaper made. The younger
generation cannot estimate the meta
morphosis which the Sun has effected
i'll the makeup of its contemporaries.
w GilCSO Ntt0 ACuiNlliucI llG CilIilSv
hlarket sheets, with their confused
arrangr ment of news, and the ponder
ous comments, can appreciate the
change wrought by the force of Il
SINGLE journal.
AZ ought nut to be necessary TO tell a
rightly constituted editor tomalc Il ter
sihie example of the young man who
calls IL scraper OF tiddles a"profcssor.''
Il shaver of chins can artist the
seller of Il few notions ga merchant
~ curar of II 'a DOCTOR" When
such Il writer comes to speak of Sum-
ner, II Millias. u Stewart, u III mmond.
he does it in precisely the same terms.
AS for the 8 of "cditrcss," ..dor.
%tress." "authortss," ..poctess," for
the corresponding words now used for
both genders, the best writers have
nearly di,countenanced it.
Every II knows the character in
George Ellot's novels who never ..bc.
gan" but always commenced" He
has a counter part in the young nun
WHO informs the public that Mr. Jones
Residence was consumed by tiamcs.''
when his house was simply burned.
Aud then, why, oh why! will he tell IL.
Mrs. Long-trre; is ..sucil II charming
converSationa'ist' when he might SAY
She was u bright thinker" Length
ism strength: the force OF Il word isn't
in the number of sNll,bles.
Thcn us to the of foreign phrases:
such phrases as ci-ievant. boulevard.
encore. epaulettc and some others have
be:ome so Anglicized that they are re.
garded us Legitimate; but there is no
excuse for the atfectation which prefers
apropos. n'importe, nous verrons.
to the stronger English equivalents.
These are the PETS of the sensational
novelist and the Journalist with g pau
city of ideas.
1t is somewhat amusing to note the
utter contempt which some Journals
have for the subtle distinctions of syn
onymous terms. The geometric rule
of things which equal the same things
equaling n another does not hold
good in rhetoric. 1t may seem exactly
alike to say the .sabove statement
and the foregoing statement" but
when the statement is made at the end
of one column, and the reference be-
gins another, it is easily apparent how
much more appropriate foregoing"
would be.
Discriminate says: "The antece-
dents of a man are those who preceded
him" Newspapers use the term
~,o,o.~.,.l Lx~.- r-.--.- It'd.